🕺🏻 Finding My Voice in Writing

Last week, I joined a four-week writing course from the authors of Every, one of my favorite media outlets. The course helps writers sharpen their voices, refine their tastes, and use AI for advanced editing.

How Writing Started for Me

After selling my first startup, I spent months reading and sharing my thoughts on social media. I wrote about relationships, spirituality, physics, theology, health, and startups.

At some point, I realized writing was like a radio signal. I’d put thoughts into the world, and like-minded people would tune in. Many became friends. Some are still in my life.

Writing also became an unexpected tool for building my startup. I met co-founders, investors, and clients through posts I shared online. It was the most effective marketing channel I’d ever used.

And it was therapeutic. At first, sharing personal thoughts publicly felt uncomfortable. Negative comments triggered self-doubt. But over time, I became more open, which made me happier.

Still, I saw writing as a functional tool, not an art form. That changed after reading George Saunders's A Swim in a Pond in the Rain.

Rethinking Writing

Saunders breaks down what makes Russian classics work—structure, logic, and hidden techniques. That book made me rethink my writing. Some tricks I had picked up naturally turned out to be well-known literary methods. It was a revelation. I started asking:

• How do I make my writing better?

• What is my style?

• What do I like, and what do I avoid?

The biggest challenge was that 80% of my writing was Russian. I only recently started writing seriously in English when I launched this newsletter.

A foreign language changes you—your personality shifts. In Russian, I feel like I’ve found my voice. In English, I’m still searching for it. My tone, rhythm, and structure feel different. It’s like using a new set of tools—some nuances just don’t translate.

I hope this course helps.

My First Writing Assignment

To kill two birds with one stone, I’m sharing the draft of my first essay for the course. Next week, Every’s editors will evaluate my writing—my first time getting professional feedback in English. The topic:

How would you characterize your writerly voice? If you don’t know, what would you like it to be? Which authors influence you?

Every text should have intention. I write to share something useful, clarify my thinking, or persuade the reader.

Because meaning is my priority, I keep my writing concise. I focus on logic and persuasion, even at the cost of elegance. A text fails if the reader doesn’t finish it—so I do everything I can to make them read to the last line.

To keep them engaged, I use three methods:

Storytelling through personal experience. People love watching others do what they’re passionate about. Have you ever found yourself stuck watching a YouTube video about something you don’t care about—simply because the person in it cares deeply and enjoys it? That’s what I try to create in my writing. I share my passion and personal stories.

Smooth flow. Every sentence must lead seamlessly to the next in an era of short attention spans. I reread my text dozens (sometimes hundreds) of times. If I hit a spot where the flow breaks, I rewrite it. Then, I reread the entire text, repeating this exercise until the whole piece can be read in one breath.

Implied meaning. I fear over-explaining. Instead, I hint at ideas, give simple examples, and let readers fill in the gaps. I’ve noticed this creates a more profound connection—like two friends who understand each other without finishing sentences.

Despite my practical approach, I love embedding a second layer of meaning—something philosophical between the lines. My best moments come when readers find the text helpful on a surface level, while others, in a different state of mind, see something deeper.

My Literary Influences

• Hemingway – Concise, high-impact writing that forces imagination to fill the blanks.

• Chekhov – Subtle, observational, and deeply human. No pretension.

• Tolstoy – Moral and spiritual depth woven into simple narratives.

• Alan Watts – Making profound ideas feel light and immediate. He doesn’t just explain concepts—he makes you feel them.

That’s it for today.

This was the first draft. Now, I need to reread it 100 times, fixing something in every pass, making it shorter and smoother. I’ll share the final version next week.

Until next Sunday,
George Levin
^{LinkedIn | Consulting}